Gaza raid to go on as long as necessary: Sharon
Death toll tops 60
Reuters, AFP, Jerusalem
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday the army would operate to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli communities ahead of a scheduled withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year. Sharon said the army would expand a buffer zone in northern Gaza to ensure Palestinian rockets were out of range of Israel and would stay there as long as necessary to halt rocket attacks such as one that killed two children Wednesday. But he said Israel would still evacuate the coastal strip it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war next year as scheduled. He added that the withdrawal would not be carried out under fire from Palestinian militants. "Evacuating the Gaza Strip is a plan that will be carried out and all orders have been given to ensure that there will no fire at the time of the evacuation, and I believe not after that either," Sharon told Army Radio. Violence has climbed in the Gaza Strip since Sharon announced his withdrawal plan, as Palestinian militants in Gaza try to portray the planned withdrawal as a victory. A total of 62 people have been killed in fighting since late Tuesday when the army launched the "Days of Penitence" operation in a bid to prevent rocket attacks by militants. The dead include 59 Palestinians, both civilians and gunmen, and three Israelis, including two soldiers. The death toll has swept past that of a May operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 40 Palestinians were killed as Israel sought to destroy cross-border weapons-smuggling tunnels. About 2,000 soldiers have taken control of a 5-mile-deep chunk of northern Gaza to counter militants firing homemade rockets into Israel. Israeli tanks and bulldozers also opened a new front yesterday, moving from a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza into the Khan Younis refugee camp, residents said. Two Palestinians were killed early yesterday in an Israeli attack in Jebaliya. Palestinian security officials said a missile apparently was fired from a pilotless Israeli aircraft hovering overhead. The Israeli military said soldiers saw militants planting a bomb and opened fire on them from the ground. The violent Islamic Jihad group identified the dead as members. Israel Radio said another militant was killed in nearby Beit Hanoun as he was planting a bomb.
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